The Average Girl's Guide to Becoming a Super Spy
by WolfRune20855
Summary: Seventeen year old Paige Martin is just like every other seventeen year old on the planet. When she goes on the Senior trip to DC, everything changes. Suddenly her parents aren't really her parents, her teacher is a secret Agent, and she has accidentally blown up one of the most recognizable monuments on the planets.
1. Chapter 1

I have a confession to make.

I'm the one who did it.

Now if you don't know what "it" is, you probably haven't been watching the news. Not that I blame you. I didn't use to watch the news either. But things have changed since then. Big things. _Huge_ things. Things that I would never have imagined could happened. It's almost funny now, looking back on it.

Two weeks ago, if you were to ask me what the worst thing to ever happen to me was I probably would have said that it was that I didn't have a room all to myself. Or maybe I would have told you that story of the one time I broke my arm when I was five. Since then I have been chased, shot at, and hit by a car. I have put explosives in one of the most iconic buildings in the United Stated, and then proceeded to blow it up. So, yeah, you could say that my life has changed more than a little.

But, you're probably getting confused.

Lets start at the beginning. That first day that it all happened. The day that my world didn't just flip upside down, it decided to go for a ride on _Space Mountain_ and then to actual space.

* * *

"Please. Please. Please. Please. _Please_." I begged dragging out the last please.

My mother looked at me skeptically. "I'm not sure if you're ready Paige." She said. "Going to trip, even on a school trip, is a big thing. I'm not sure if you can handle it."

"I can handle it." I reassured her. "I can be responsible."

My father laughed, probably because, at the moment, I sounded like a little girl. I wasn't trying to sound little. I was trying to sound mature. The fact that I sounded three years younger than I was was not a good thing.

"I know that you can be responsible." Said my mother. "The question is will you be responsible."

"Yes." I said, trying not to sound like a little girl. "I'll be one hundred percent mature adult."

My mother glanced over at my father who just shrugged. "We technically already paid Joann." He said. "I see no reason for her to not go."

My mother looked at me sternly. "You can go-"

"Yes."

"Under one condition." My face fell. "No fireworks. That means no fountains, sparklers, poppers, smokes, firecrackers, or cakes. None of your homemade stuff either. Nothing that goes boom." She said with emphasis. "Is that understood?" She asked.

"Understood."

* * *

"Paige!" Shouted my friend Lexi from the back of the bus. "Over here." I maneuvered myself past all of the other teenagers, in to the back of the bus, gagging at the smell. Did they not have air conditioning on these buses?

Lexi moved her stuff on to the floor and scooted over in the seat. "So," she said, "what's in the bag?"

I glanced down at my bag, which was falling apart. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"What's in the bag?" She gestured nervously with her hands. "What kind of fire-"

"Shut up." I slammed a hand over her mouth. "Do you want the whole grade to know?"

Lexi's eyes widened as she must of realized what her stupidity would of cost us. "Right." She said. "But you do have some...er...stuff?" She looked at me hopefully.

"Yes."

"How'd you got them past your parents?"

"They're in my toiletries." I said.

"Cool." Said Lexi, opening up a copy of _Forbes_ along with a newspaper. Lexi was, probably, the only Senior who read _Forbes_ and the newspaper.

"Watcha readin?" I asked as the bus started to move.

"Oh, you know." She gestured with her hand. "Stuff on New York."

I sighed. My friend had a weird fettish on the alien invasion of New York last summer. For years, Lexi had been fascinated with comic books and superheroes, such as Superman. But now that there were real superheroes...Lexi just couldn't shut up about them. She got on almost everyone else's nerves with all of her theories and facts.

"They have this awesome interview with Tony Stark." She said.

"Really?" I asked, faking an interest.

"Yep." She said. "Listen to this;

_Forbes_: What makes you a hero, and not a vigilante?

Tony Stark: Perspective. And the mansions. But mostly perspective.

_Forbes_: Do you ever feel guilty for being an arms dealer?

Tony Stark: No. Do you ever feel guilty for being a puppet of global media monoculture? Of course not." She proceeded to read me the entire interview.

I stared out the window as she talked about her favorite real life superhero. It could be relaxing to hear Lexi talk about superheroes. She acted as if these impossible people could make any problem just disappear.

Lexi stopes talking as a teacher moved to the back of the bus. Miss Wilson took a seat right across the isle from Lexi and me.

Lexi sighed. "Great." She muttered, handing me the copy of _Forbes_ and starting on the newspaper. "The old hag had to sit next to us."

I pinched her on the arm, glancing over to see if Miss Wilson had heard her. She didn't show any signs of having heard Lexi's comment, for which I was grateful.

Miss Wilson, otherwise known as the old hag, wasn't actually old. In fact, she couldn't have been any older than twenty five. The reason that she was called "the old hag" was because she had replaced our previous AP Chemistry teacher, the real old hag, about half way through the school year, when she had decided to take a vacation to Mexico.

Rebecca Wilson was tall, smart, and beautiful. She was nice to the majority of the students and made chemistry fun. Half the guys in our grade switched to AP Chemistry just to have her. Everyone loved her.

She was the _worst_ teacher I had ever had.

For some reason, she didn't like me. I had gotten more detentions from her for not turning in homework, then I had my Junior year when I caught the lab on fire. At least once a week I would have to stay behind for an hour with only her for my company.

I banged my head against the seat in front of me and opened the copy of _Forbes_, not really reading it. This was going to be a long trip.


	2. Chapter 2

Fifteen hours later we pulled up in front of a hotel. I poked Lexi on the side, waking her up. She moaned and rolled over. "What time is it?" She asked sleepily.

I pulled out my phone and checked it. "One twenty-three." I said with a yawn. I pulled my bag out from underneath the seat and filed out with the rest of the class.

"Alright," said Coach Humphrey, "It's four to a room. No boys in girls room and vise versa. And try to get some sleep. Everyone has to be back at the bus by ten. The people you're lodging with will be your group for tomorrow. Got it? Good." He finished without waiting for us to answer and started handing us key cards.

Lexi came up behind me and yawned. "Did you catch what he said?" She asked.

I took two key cards from the coach and handed one of them to Lexi. "Four to a room." I said.

"Who are we with?" She asked sleepily.

"I don't know." I shouldered my bag and headed off to the hotel.

* * *

Here it is." I said as we stopped in front of our room. "Floor four, room twenty-eight." I stuck the key card in the slot and turned the doorknob.

I stepped in and took a look at our surroundings. It was pretty much the same as every other hotel I'd stayed at. Two Queen beds, a pull out couch, a TV, and a mini fridge, and coffee maker.

"I need some of this." Lexi said, moving to the already full coffee maker.

I flopped down on one of the beds, pushing off the pink suitcase that was already there, and pulled out my laptop. I was extremely tired, but I didn't want to go to sleep. "Lexi, can you get me a cup?" I asked my best friend.

"Sure." Lexi said.

I logged in to _tumblr_ and started to scroll through my dash.

"Who's do you think this is?" Lexi said, handing me my cup of coffee, and picking up the suitcase I had thrown on the floor. She sat down next to me and pulled out her own laptop. "Let's see." She said. "Who would choose such a gender based color?"

As if answering her question, the door burst open and omitted a laughing Helen Willis and Jess Garza. They stopped laughing when they saw us.

"What are you doing in here?" Asked Helen, tossing her perfectly blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Now we know who would choose such a gender based color Paige." Said Lexi, not bothering to look up from her laptop or answer Helen's question. "I think we could of figured it out sooner though." She said and smiled wickedly at me from over her laptop.

If there was one thing in the world that Lexi loved more than superheroes it was messing with Helen and Jess. Helen Willis and Jess Garza were the "popular" girls of our grade. They were the ones who always had a date, fixed their hair perfectly, ect. They always had boys throwing themselves at them and rubbed it in the other girls' faces. I couldn't care less.

Lexi thought that they were idiots.

Because Lexi thought that they were the stupidest people to walk the earth, she would do everything in her power to make them confused and angry. It was actually really funny to watch. Lexi would use big words and weird facts to confuse them, which would make them angry.

"It's not a gender based color." Protested Jess.

"Yes it is." Said Lexi. She looked at Jess. "Do you know why pink is a gender based color? Why everything for girls is pink?"

"No." Helen answered before Jess could. She sat down on the other bed and turned on the TV. I glanced over at her as some celebrity TV show started playing.

Helen looked like a model. She always did. She always had her makeup perfectly applied and her hair perfectly strait. I had always been a little jealous of it. My hair was naturally curly and a not quite red color. It always did horrible in the humid weather and got all frizzy. Helen's best friend, Jess, was just as pretty as Helen in exactly the opposite way. If you looked at them there was no question to why they were popular.

"Did you bring anything Piage?" Asked Helen. The question took me by surprise.

"Any what?" I asked.

"Any fireworks." Helen answered. "Everyone knows that Paige Martin is the fireworks girl." I didn't know that they knew me as anything at all.

"No." I lied. I didn't want these girls to know about them. They'd probably tell Miss Wilson and I'd have detention for the rest of my life.

"That's to bad." Said Helen.

"Do you know what you should play?" Asked Lexi, glancing over her computer. "You should play BBCA."

"Why?" Asked Helen. I was surprised that she even listened to Lexi.

"Because all that they play is makeup shows." Lexi said, lying through her teeth. I looked over at her, wondering what she was up to. All that BBCA played was _Next Generation_ reruns, and _Star Trek_ was likely to make these girls mad.

"Really?" Asked Jess rather stupidly. I knew that the two of them dumbed themselves down to get attention from boys, but I didn't think it just came naturally.

"Definitely."

Lexi took the remote from Jess and changed the channel. Before either of the girls realized what was in the TV, she took the batteries out of the remote and hid them under a pillow. She smiled mischievously at me and raised a finger to her lips. I looked back at the computer and ignored the protests that were beginning to come form the other girls.


	3. Chapter 3

"They have a Captain America exhibit Paige." Lexi looked up from the paper she was reading. "Isn't that awesome?"

"I guess." I shrugged. I didn't really care about these superheroes the way that Lexi did. I was looking more forward to seeing the _Mr. Rogers_ sweater. He'd been my childhood superhero.

"I guess?" Lexi gawked at me. "How can you just guess? Because, I'm telling you, it's awesome." She paused and glanced around. "Let's go." She said.

"Aren't we supposed to stay with Helen and Jess?" I asked looking at the other two girls. The teachers had said not to leave your group, and if Miss Wilson caught me with only one other person...

Lexi sighed and rolled her eyes. "Do you really want to stay with them all day?"

The answer, of course, was no.

As if Lexi could read my mind, she pulled my hand and dragged me behind her. "Now you have no choice." She said. "If anyone asks you, I abducted you. Or I forced you here at gunpoint. Or I-"

"Or we could just tell them the truth." I interrupted her.

"Tell them the truth?" Lexi scoffed. "You're such a goody-goody sometimes."

"Thanks." I muttered as we entered the Captain America exhibit.

They'd gone all out with the exhibit. I suppose it was because he had saved the world last year, but still, they appeared to have spared no expense. They had everything. His biography, videos from the war, his old uniform. I don't think they could have made it better if they tried. I pressed play on one of the videos, when my phone rang, disrupting the silence around me. I glanced at the caller ID. It was my mom.

"Sorry." I whispered to a Asian tourist as I took my phone and headed to the hallway. "Hello?" I asked answering it.

"Lucille Paige Martin where the hell are your fireworks?"

Shit.

"Um..."

"You brought them with you, didn't you?" She shouted from the other end of the phone.

"Um..." I glanced around. I was getting weird looks from several of the people in the hallway. Surely they could hear my mother on the phone. "Can you yell a little quieter mom?" I whispered.

"What?" My mother yelled even louder. "Don't use that tone of voice on me young lady."

"Sorry." I apologized to her. "It's just I'm in the middle of a museum, and everyone's looking at me weird."

"As they should." She said, but her voice had returned to normal. "Paige, did you bring your fireworks with you?"

The quickest way out was the truth as my dad always said.

"Yes." I muttered.

"That's it." She said, her voice rising. "We are coming up to get you."

"No." I shouted, making everyone filing past me stare at me. I ignored them. "Don't do that." I said. "You can ground me when I get home or whatever, just don't come get me." I could only imagine the detentions.

"Fine." She said coldly from the other side. "But as soon as you come home, I am taking away every explosive you have. And no setting anything off on the trip. I will find out. I will. Got it?" And without waiting for me to answer, she hung up.

I sank down against the wall. My perfect trip, suddenly wasn't perfect anymore. I sighed. Now I'd just be counting down the days till I was grounded.

"You look disappointed." Said a voice above me. I lifted my head to see a tall guy with a hat covering his head. He sat down next to me, so that I could see him at my level. He had a nice face, it was good looking and slightly familiar.

"How could you tell?" I asked him looking down at my phone.

The man just shrugged. "What happened?" He asked me after a while.

I laughed. "My mom found me out."

"Found you out?"

"I'm on a school trip, and I brought fireworks." I explained.

"You have fireworks?" The man looked slightly surprised. "On you right now?"

"No." I said, shaking my head. "They're on the bus." I was surprised that I was telling this man these things. Why? I had never seen him before in my life. He could report me to the police. I was sure that it was illegal for a seventeen year old to posses fireworks.

"That's good." Said the man, standing up. "I suppose that you're grounded now?" He asked offering me a hand.

I took it and stood up. "Yep." I said. I glanced around. There was something eerily familiar about this man. I felt like I knew him. "What's your name?" I asked him.

"Steve." He said offering me his hand once more.

I shook it. "Nice to meet you Steve. I'm Paige." I said.

"Nice to meet you Paige." Steve said. He glanced at the sign. "Do you like the Avengers?" He asked.

"The Avengers? Is that what they're called?" Steve nodded. "My best friend really likes superheroes." I explained. "She keeps trying to come up with a name for them. I'll have to tell her the Avengers."

"Yeah." Said Steve. "You should."

I sighed. "I'm going to have to drag her away from the exhibit now." I said. "It was nice meeting you Steve."

"The pleasure was mine." Steve said. And with that I turned back to the Captain America exhibit to search for Lexi.


	4. Chapter 4

"The Avengers. That's a good one. Where'd you come up with that?" Lexi asked with a mouthful of burrito.

"A guy I met in the hallway came up with it." I said taking a bite of my own burrito. It was good. My mom wasn't a big fan of fast food or anything unhealthy, so whenever I did get to eat some it was an occasion.

"What kind of guy?" Asked Lexi. "Was he cute?"

"That's gross." I said. "He was like twenty-five."

"Fine." Muttered Lexi. "But was he cute?"

"I guess?"

It was good enough for Lexi. "What was his name?"

"Steve." I said. That part I did know.

Lexi's mouth dropped. "Paige!" She screamed. "You met Captain America."

"Or a guy named Steve." I suggested.

"No." Lexi shook her head. "You met Captain America." She set down her burrito. "Do you have any idea what a big deal this is?"

"No." I answered.

"Well, it's a huge deal." Said Lexi. "You just met the first ever real superhero. What did he talk to you about?"

"Nothing much." I said, not wanting to tell Lexi about the incident with my mom. She'd be depressed then as well.

"Nothing much." She said, writing in a notebook. "So did you talk about the weather?"

"And if I did?"

"Then I want to hear how Captain America talks about the weather."

"That's if he was Captain America."

"He was." Lexi said.

I took another bite out of my burrito. Maybe telling Lexi hadn't been the best idea.

"We've got to go back to the exhibit." Lexi said.

I sighed. "You go do that." I said. "I'll finish my burrito."

"You do that." And just like that, Lexi was gone.

Looking back on it, I wish that I'd chased after Lexi and maybe gone to search for Captain America, because there was no way that we would of found him, and then I'd be at home with my mom and dad, and none if this would have ever happened. Except I'd be grounded. But I didn't. And there was no way of being able to tell then just how crazy my world would become.

Instead, I watched her leave, bumping in to some couple in their mid thirties, and quickly apologizing.

I'd always found Lexi's obsession with superheroes a little funny. My mom thought that Lexi liked them because her dad had left her mom when Lexi was three. She said that Lexi really had no one to look up to, no father figure. And with her mom on the late shifts at the plant, and no one ever at the house besides Lexi herself, I could see why my mom thought that. But I didn't believe that it was true. I think that Lexi saw superheroes as people who could fix the world, and to a further extent her problems. And while I didn't think that Thor would crash through the window with the magical solutions to her problems, I did understand why she loved them so much.

My eyes roamed over the park around me. There was an elderly couple having a picnic. The couple that Lexi had bumped in to were now entering one of the restaurants. A few feet away from me, a couple of kids played tag, their mom to busy with their infant brother to stop them or warn them. My eyes roamed over the park again, and stopped on a figure walking right towards me. Miss Wilson.

I shot up from where I was sitting and ran down the sidewalk, taking my burrito with me. It would've been bad enough for Miss Wilson to find me and Lexi without Jess and Helen, but just me...it would be endless detentions on top of a grounding.

I darted around the back of the building and ducked behind the dumpster, gagging at the smell.

Miss Wilson came around the corner and glanced around. I could hear the click of her heels on the pavement as she searched for me. I held my breath as she approached the dumpster. With each click of her heels I could feel the millions of detentions that she was going to give me. I tensed up as she approached, getting ready to jump out and run for it, when the click of her heels stopped. A second later, she receded back.

I let out the breath that I'd been holding, which was a mistake. _I can't believe my luck_, I thought just before something hard hit me on the back of my head.


End file.
